The housing recession continued to exert its impact on local markets. Hartsdale was no exception. Areas such as White Plains and Hartsdale were late to the recession party. For a while it looked as though they might emerge somewhat unscathed. But the market crash of 2008 caused the correction to reach the lowr Westchester market. The question remains as to where the bottom of this market truly is. I have given up making too many predictions. What conclusions one can come to are generally based on current inventories and the absorption rate. Since housing is supply and demand – low inventories stabilize prices. In any case, the decline is not over, but it is fair to say that the free-fall of last year seems to be winding down.
Hartsdale NY Cooperatives:
Entry-level markets fared better than other sectors so far during this correction. Cooperatives in Hartsdale show a similar pattern to that of White Plains. Prices are down 3.3% over last year. However, I would warn that this might reflect the increased sale of 2 BR units over 1 BR units. As prices fell, buyers found they could afford a bigger unit – creating statistics are artificially favorable. If you are a seller, be careful not to overprice your coop. Inventories are low and volume is only slightly lower than the previous year. So, for the moment, this is more stable market than most.
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Kris Berg wrote a very compelling post on Inman yesterday Don’t Forget the Customer The article was spot-on about how brokerages function – and often how the function to the detriment of the consumer.
Now, I think most consumers would understand that in order to keep their doors open, a brokerage needs to be profitable. The bottom line for any business is that they must turn a profit or close their doors. Ideally, profitability should be tied to customer service. The agents of a brokerage should provide outstanding customer service including intelligent negotiating skills, a fine marketing plan, and service that smoothes the transaction process. Unfortunately, that model is not the prevailing one among brokerages.
The way brokerages function often is a mystery to the consumer and it often comes as a shock to new agents who think that the brokerage is there to “support” them. After all they are paying very hefty splits to the brokerage -supposedly for leads and support and training from the brokerage. And therein lies the rub for the consumer. Most brokerages disconnected from customer service and the newly licensed agent course became the big cash cow. They recruited and recruited throwing anyone with a license and a pulse up against a wall and hoping that something will stick. Even a non-productive agent had a couple of good deals in them from family and friends.
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Back in the bull market days of 2005-2006 the notion of needing to “stage” your home for a faster sale was nearly laughable. But home sales in the Westchester market are not what they once were. As most seller’s are painfully aware – this is not 2006. There is ample inventory on the market, prices are down and buyers are increasingly picky. Things once deemed insignificant now become major stumbling blocks to a successful sale.
Increasingly, listing agents, myself included, are encouraging sellers to stage their homes prior to putting them on the market. That includes, but is not limited to painting, pointing up and arranging furniture in a way that maximizes the potential of the space and creates a neutral atmosphere. We ask that seller’s depersonalize the space so that buyers can “mentally move in.”
Although I am not one to spend a homeowners money needlessly, there are times when I feel staging is essential. Staging is most beneficial in the following cases:
An Empty Home:
When the sellers have moved out – they tend to leave an empty shell of a house that used to be a home. That house can tend to lack personality and be all too forgettable to a prospective buyer. Right now there is an excess of inventory that is completely unfurnished and after a while they can all start to look the same to buyers. If a house is in danger of becoming that forgettable – it needs staging in order to stand out in the eyes of buyers.
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The housing market in White Plains has taken a drubbing since the stock market crash of 2008. Although some adjacent areas are showing small signs of stabilization, the same can not be said for the city of White Plains. This is ironic because White Plains was at the epicenter of the housing boom for Westchester County.
White Plains NY Cooperatives:
Cooperative prices were actually up slightly over the same period in 2008. However, this slight uptick might be do to an increase in the proportion of 2 BR units in the sales statistics. The previous quarter showed a grim 17% price reduction and recent sales in specific complexes indicates that this downward trend is continuing. Since 2 BR units are suddenly far more affordable, buyers are finding that they can afford a larger unit. Sales volume is down 17% over the previous year and the current inventory of 9 months indicates a buyer’s market undergoing a price correction bordering on double digits.
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It is very interesting that just as consumers are demanding ever more hyper-local content and knowledge from agents that we are also seeing another distinct trend in the opposite direction: the tendency to list and sell to larger and larger geographic areas.
The contrast between old-school hyper-local agents and the newer nomad agnet was driven home to me while I was working with two listing agents who still work exclusively in small niche markets. I was at a closing with one of them and she implied that since I had the entire city of White Plains to cover, why didn’t I simply refer out the client who finally bought in Scarsdale?
Can a real estate agent be too local?
I knew that the attitude about staying hyper-local is alive and well though it appears to be a staple of old-school real estate. Still, I was more than a tad surprised. Scarsdale is not the moon. It is the town directly adjacent to the west side of White Plains and about a whopping six miles from my front door to the center of the village. If we followed this line of thinking to its most extreme would mean that a buyer potentially moving from New York City to Westchester NY would have to have as many as five or six agents to explore all the possibilities open to them that were within about 30 minute commute. For the consumer this seems most unwieldy if not highly impractical. Could you imagine the mountain of agents all crawling over each other for the buyer’s attention? What a mess. Not to mention a monster of coordination.
From the agent’s perspective, there could also be a danger to being too local. What if something happens to that small segment of the market you represent? If your geography/price range are razor thin – you are setting yourself up for trouble. This was clearly seen this year when agents who specialized in small high-end markets got creamed because jumbo loan issues bit them in the backside. Another listing agent I encountered was used to selling about 10 major properties a year – but this year had only managed a single sale.
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Over the past couple of years, I’ve written several blogs about local businesses. One of my favorite haunts has been Coffee Labs of Tarrytown NY. Coffee Labs was established in 2002 and for seven years has roasted and served wonderful coffee drinks and freshly roasted coffee to brew at home. Coffee Labs was named for the owner’s chocolate Labrador Retrievers. During tht time, Mike and Alicia have established Coffee Labs as a eco-friendly and pet-friendly coffee shop. Since they don’t prepare food on-site, they had an arrangement with the health department that allowed patrons to bring their dogs into the shop. The dogs had to be properly leashed and be well-behaved. I even wrote a blog about how Jade and I often spent mornings at Coffee Labs while I completed correspondence and some work realted activities – including market reports and blog articles.
But it only takes one complaint to ruin something that has worked well for years. Apparently one person complained to the health department and that has put the entire pet-friendly nature of the coffee shop “on hold.” The coffee shop is applying for a variance so that the patrons can bring their pets back. But positive public opinion on this matter can only be helpful. So I ask all pet-owners everywhere to feel free to comment on this blog and add your support by joining the discussion on Facebook. As one dog-owner and patron said to me last evening – “If you don’t like the fact that dogs area allowed – go somewhere else! There are plenty of coffee shops in Westchester if you don’t like dogs.”
© 2010 Ruthmarie G. Hicks – http://thewestchesterview.com. All rights reserved.
This is a story about selling your home during a housing recession.
Sellers with homes listed today will be able to identify with some of the antics that buyers in a bear market will pull. But this is about a listing that was active 14 years ago in 1996 – during another deep housing recession. I wasn’t a real estate agent at the time, I was a seller. My mother had just died after a prolonged illness and I was listing her house for sale. The house in question was a beautiful 1932 Tudor sitting on prime property with sweeping golf course views in wonderful residential area in White Plains. There was a good deal of emotion involved since the home in question had been designed by my Grandmother and built by my Grandfather.
Although I wasn’t an agent I was smart enough to read the newspapers and so I know it was a crummy market. The house would have been worth roughly $600k just a few short years ago – but in 1996-1997 I was hoping for about $550k – but knew I would probably only see a litte more than $500k. Gut instinct told me to rent the place, but my co-executor was adamant that the house had to be sold.
Nothing prepared me for the crazy home buyers that came through looking for a “deal.”
90% of them were bottom-feeders looking to steal a house – and looking for ANY excuse to chisel the price to the bone. My beleaguered broker came to me with all sorts of concession requests – some of which made sense. But more often than not, the requests bordered on the absurd. Some of the more hilarious issues are worth noting because when we see frustrated sellers – we need to be aware that their pain is real and that some of the crazy concessions being asked by buyers can be truly ridiculous.
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Happy New Year Everyone…
Westchester is one of those places where there is a New Years celebration to fit any mood. To prove the point, during the course of the day and evening I decided to keep a photo journal of sorts of my New Year’s Eve. I pulled my favorites for posting. For those who prefer a more contemplative mood, there was plenty to do and see in lower Westchester. You could walk the trails, take a drive, wonder around the towns and villages. For those who prefer to party – downtown White Plains had its annual ball drop and New Year’s party. My personal preference leans towards the more quite and reflective celebration. But that didn’t stop me from attending the annual ball drop and fire works in downtown White Plains. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t catch the fireworks – let’s just say my camera picked the wrong time to need a change of batteries. Too bad too, because the show lit up the sky to the point where it was almost like daylight for a moment. Hopefully, you will find a picture to suit your mood….
© 2010 – Ruthmarie G. Hicks – http://thewestchesterview.com. All rights reserved.
We had our first snow yesterday. As usual we were told to expect the storm of the century, so I did what everyone else in Westchester was doing…got groceries, hoarded salt, made sure I had a good shovel and hunkered down. Seriously, the way we treat snow storms around here one would think that no one had ever heard of snow plows and other modern marvels that actually make it possible for you to be back in the real world within 24 hours. Nevertheless, the storm and subsequent dig-out gave me some quiet time with my canine family. I have two Siberain Huskies and a husky mix who for obvious reasons LOVE the snow. The colder the better and the heavier the snow fall, the happier they are. So after spending quality time with my shovel and salt, I spent some time outside with Buddy, Jade & Tundra. They had a great time tearing up the yard. To get good pictures however they had to stand still…I got a few shots of them running, but most of that passed by my camera in a blur!
For the stills here is a link to Siberians in the Snow on Flickr.
Enjoy the video and Happy Holidays.
Scarsdale NY housing has been in the cross hairs of the housing recession for a while now. Initially, it was resistant to the correction taking place in other parts of the country. Eventually the forces that had hit other parts of the country so dramatically, came home to roost even in the most resilient areas of Westchester. Real estate values in Scarsdale NY came under prssure as inventories swelled. The drop was severe. However, some of the numbers show signs of a bottom being at hand.
Cooperatives:
The number of co-ops sold are down 15% over the previous year. This is a trend that has been seen in other parts of the county and reflects the difficulties in obtaining financing. Currently there is a nearly 8 month inventory on the market. However, prices remain slightly higher than the previous year, (5.4%) indicating a market that is stabilizing. There are some mixed signals here. the inventory is still high however, the pricing is surprisingly robust.
Single Family Homes – Scarsdale:
After a “pop” during the 2nd quarter prices have once again fallen and are down 27% over the 3rd quarter of 2008. Swollen inventories are going down. Right now inventories are approaching th 6 month mark.
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